Once you have decided what sort of research materials you want to work with, you can choose the best research tool to help you find that material. There are two Library Research tools that will help you find print and electronic primary and secondary materials:
1. Library Search
2. A-Z Databases
Don't just use Google for information!
Google will find lots of information and is a great tool for examining certain kinds of material such as blogs and other openly accessible web resources. However, the information you find will vary greatly in terms of accuracy, currency bias etc. Always evaluate the material for research quality.
As well as containing information that is not exposed through Google, the Library research tools also allow you to be more precise with your searching as they offer specialist research database features to improve your research discovery.
Library Search is a good starting point.
You can search for your research topic(s) and quickly and easily retrieve details of print and electronic books, journal articles and other full text material.
You can also use it to check whether we have particular books or journals you may discover during your literature searching.
To research the global literature on a topic, and go beyond quick full text results, then you should follow up with a database search.
You can tailor your search more precisely using all the sophisticated functionality available on the research databases.
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
